THE chances of haze hitting the region have gotten worse with the prediction of a moderate to strong El Nino weather condition to strike later this month.

This is likely to exacerbate the current dry season till the end of the year and increase the likelihood of hotspot activities in fire-prone areas in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sarawak.

The raging fires have blown the smoke this way for much of the last decade, as Indonesia continues to combat the fires set to the forest.

The warning was sounded at the 8th meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution held here on Wednesday. It was attended by Environment Ministers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Asean Secretariat.

At the meeting, Indonesia announced several new initiatives as part of its Plan of Action (PoA) to prevent and mitigate land and forest fires.

Among these are the issuing of warning letters to local governments and plantation companies to curb the practice of forest burning, training of oil farmers and villagers on zero burning practices and an agreement to ban all open burning.

The ministers also agreed to step up enforcement measures and promote public awareness to control fires.

Singapore will also host a Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) forum here in October as part of the Asean Ministerial Meeting on the Environment to review the situation again.

By Amresh Gunasingham